President Remote Control

During the 2008 campaign season, I marveled about the ability of the candidate and the campaign to stay 'on message.' For sure, the messages which candidate Obama offered were the zealously vague platitudes of hope and change, but it served as the perfect counterpoint to the frustrations most of had with the Bush administration. For many, John McCain embodied all the things we disliked about the Bush administration with fewer of its virtues. Hope and change were the right messages and they were delivered with monotonous effectiveness. With Obama, the candidate and the campaign got it and they stuck to it. And they won.

Baseball fans are all familiar with the tale of the rookie season and the sophomore jinx. A rookie pitcher breaks into the major league and he seems, during his first time through the league, to be virtually un-hitable. But then, as the seasoned professionals have seen him a few times, he is suddenly hitable. He loses the mystique and he struggles. Sometimes they fade away to obscurity unable to adapt and sometimes they expand and grow and find new ways to fool their opponents and stay on top of their game.

President Obama shows all the signs of the sophomore jinx and, for now, few signs of the adaptation and growth necessary for a long and successful career in the major leagues.

I watched this weekend as the President took some time from his umpteenth vacation to sit down with the usual suscepts to deal with message. (No, I didn't spell that wrong)

First President Obama was asked about a poll which showed that one in five Americans questions whether he is a Christian. His answer reveals. “I can’t spend all of my time with my birth certificate plastered on my forehead.”

The question was about his faith, his answer about his birthplace and citizenship. Regardless of what that tells you, it tells me something bad about this President. This type of remark has become all too commonplace in the last 18 months. A diversion. And a bad one.

So much of what made Obama seem un-hitable just 20 months ago now makes him seem aloof and unconcerned. His ballyhooed coolness, an attribute which wowed wispy conservatives, has now made just about everyone post-oil-spill (even James Carville), either baffled or bitter. Coolness in the face of your hardship is virtue, coolness in the face of others' hardship--vice.

Even the President's storied speechifying now grates. In speech after speech, his robotic tones reveal nothing. Let me be clear--they are, like his teleprompter, utterly predictable. During the critical healthcare debate, Obama grudgingly deigned to discourse on the topic and when he did his dictatorial tone revealed his impatience with having to tell us stupid children the same thing over and over when what he really wants to say is "Because I said so.." The problem was never their plan, it was always our collective inability to perceive its greatness. "The election is over, John."

In fact the only time that we see any truth, any realness in Obama is when he is being thin skinned.

This brings me to another comment of the President this weekend. Asked about the "Restoring Honor" rally, Obama dismissed it saying "It’s not surprising that someone like a Mr. Beck is able to stir up a certain portion of [the American people.]" Regardless of what you think of Mr. Beck, hundreds of thousands of people on the mall praying for the restoration of this country is a big deal. Why not say that you share some of their concerns? Is that too much to ask? Aloof does not even begin to describe it. The president only served to solidify the opinion that many Americans share. He doesn't care.

This president will do what he wants and will ask our opinion only when he wants it. Apparently, this is government of the people and bye people. His is the imperial presidency that many have feared. Controlling of the people while remaining steadfastly remote from them. President Remote Control.

Absent from any of Obama's action or rhetoric is the ability to adapt to new realities. Without such adaption in approach or rhetoric, the American people will see each pitch for its rookie season sameness. President Remote Control will reveal himself as a flash in the pan and John and Jane Q. will reluctantly conclude that it is time to cut our losses.

Back in 2008, Obama and his campaign understood that message matters. What he fails to understand is that in 2010, it still does.

Praying For Christopher Hitchens

Originally posted at National Catholic Register


I know he doesn't want me to and I know he thinks it is useless but, Christopher Hitchens, I am praying for you.

Christopher Hitchens can be smart, acerbic, funny, mean, insightful, and thick. He defends Western Civilization while, via his outspoken atheism, semantically chipping away at the Christian pillars that support it. In short, Christopher Hitchens is a frustrating person. Christopher Hitchens is also very sick. He writes...

I have been advised by my physician that I must undergo a course of chemotherapy on my esophagus. This advice seems persuasive to me. I regret having had to cancel so many engagements at such short notice.

There are no good cancers to have, but if you were forced to make a list of 'good' cancers to have, esophageal cancer would not be on the list.

I know he doesn't want them, but he needs our prayers.

It is understandable that many have seen Hitchens as the enemy, a leading proponent of a proud and energetic atheism. He has often used his considerable wit to mock religion and in particular Christianity. In doing so, he has been an intellectual enabler of many non-intellectuals helping them to be grossly comfortable with their own impiety. These are not good things.

But Christopher Hitchens is not the enemy. God created him because He loves him. We need to love him too. We should continue to oppose his wrongheaded and destructive ideas at every turn using our gifts, to whatever degree we have been granted them, to undo what Hitchens has done with his.

But we can and should do something more. Something that he can't or rather won't do. We can pray for him. And pray for him some more. Let's love him as much as we can. Let's us love him with a patient unrequited love.

For him I will pray for very different things.

I pray for his healing.

I pray for his soul.

I pray he doesn't suffer much while knowing suffering is unavoidable.

I pray that that he realizes the redemptive power of suffering when united with the suffering of our Lord.

I pray that in whatever times he has left, and I pray that is a long time, that he puts his myriad gifts into the service of the Lord.

I pray that he realizes the love of the God who created him.

I must confess that I smile when I ponder what a wonderful Christian Hitchens would make if ever he were to believe. I hope he doesn't take offense at that. I often wonder the same thing about myself.